Ryan Mountcastle returned to the Orioles’ dugout after a two-run home run Monday and realized he was once again responsible for debuting a water-themed celebration.
His double Wednesday against the Texas Rangers marked the first time Baltimore’s sprinkler-then-spray method of commemorating a two-base hit went into effect. After his blast against the Oakland Athletics, Mountcastle saw teammates at the end of the dugout prepping what has been dubbed the “homer hose,” a funnel connected to a tube that one player pours a bottle of water into, with the Oriole on the other end drinking it.
“I’m just the inaugural celebration guy,” Mountcastle said. “We don’t have a triple one yet. I probably won’t be the first for that one.”
The team’s obsession with water stems from its spring training talent show, when Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Terrin Vavra, Kyle Stowers and Colton Cowser put on what Rutschman referred to as a “human fountain show.” In addition to the sprinkler and the hose, a player who singles turns an imaginary faucet.
The homer hose was the brainchild of left-hander Cole Irvin, acquired in a trade with Oakland over the offseason. He bought the tube on Amazon hoping to have it in time for the Orioles’ first home series, but after a delay, Monday proved a fitting first game, with Rutschman and Austin Hays joining Mountcastle in going deep. Between the blasts, utility player Terrin Vavra disinfected the mouthpiece.
Before Monday’s game, Irvin and fellow left-hander Keegan Akin covered the 5-foot hose in orange and black tape, with Irvin saying they might need to “MacGyver” it down to 3 feet before they potentially get a replacement. He added the Orioles’ pitching staff has its own water-focused celebration that might surface later in the season.
“I feel like we’re in SeaWorld in our dugout,” Irvin said. “We may have to put ‘splash zone’ up in front of the dugout.
“We like to have fun in the dugout. Dugout participation is high right now, so it’s all in good fun.”
Home run celebrations are of growing popularity in the sport. Last year, the Orioles notably had a home run chain. The Los Angeles Angels used to have a player who homered put on a cowboy hat but replaced that headwear this season with a Samurai helmet. The Cincinnati Reds likewise don a viking horns after a longball.
“Everybody’s doing it nowadays,” Mountcastle said. “It almost seems like everybody’s trying to one-up each other with it, so I’m sure another team will come up with something, too.
“It’s fun, and we’re having a good time doing it.”
Although some Orioles fans have joined the players by hopping aboard the homer hose hype train, a segment of the fan base has expressed concerns about its connotations about alcohol consumption. Irvin said the players are strictly putting water down the hose and chose the name they did because they want it to reflect childhood fun.
“When we were kids, we drank out of a hose when we were playing ball in the street and having fun as kids,” Irvin said. “That’s where the inspiration came from my end. I’m definitely not out there promoting binge-drinking or anything like that. It’s primarily from a kid-like mentality of drinking out of a hose. When we were kids and having fun playing the game the right way with our friends, that’s what it is.
“We’re not trying to promote anything negative. We’re just staying hydrated out there after a long trot around the bases.”
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